Steady on the Grind

Happy Resurrection Day! I hope you have all had a wonderful Easter!
It’s back to the grind for me on Monday, but I must say I have enjoyed my week. I have spent it doing one of my most favorite things in the world…reading! I know nerd right?
Here’s what I’ve read so far this week. My favorite of the stack has to be Mara Dyer!! I loved it!  I’ve already ordered the second book from Amazon…can’t wait to get started!

Here’s what I started yesterday.

And here’s the rest of my April Haul.

I hope to show you my next set for May in a few weeks!
In other news…
I’ve been creating these math pages for my students to complete after our daily story problem. It’s too painful to think of my Number Talk pages….they were destroyed in yet another external hard drive death. I can’t even bring myself to start re-creating those yet, maybe this summer.
Anyway, I try to create ones that will keep all the things I’ve taught them fresh. Here’s a freebie for you to use this week. Enjoy and leave some feedback…please.

I have fixed the link for this freebie! Sorry!!!

April Calendar
My April Promethean Board Calendar is uploaded to my store. I’ve had a couple of e-mails about this. I’m also working feverishly to get the final unit of my Reading Street I Have Who Has pack done. Look for it this weekend.


Have a wonderful week!!!! Summer’s just around the corner people!!!!!

A Post Full of Randomness

Hi!
It’s Spring Break for me this week…holla!
This post is full of randomness. So hang on.
Here’s a little of what we’ve been up for the past few weeks.

inspiration

inspiration

         St. Patrick’s Day Fun

inspiration

inspiration for Lucky Numbers

Now on to Randomness…
The Harlem Shake
First off let me say that the videos that are popping up all over YouTube showing the “Harlem Shake” are hilarious. But I thought you might get a kick out of seeing the real, original Harlem Shake. This dance is probably ten or more years old and I’m thinking it was first featured in a P. Diddy, Puff Daddy, Puff (or whatever he was calling himself back then) video. Did you know there is even a video featuring
Harlem-ites ( is that a word) reacting to videos of the “Harlem Shake"?
The Read Deal


The reaction


The tutorial


More Shaking


Next up….book blogs and YouTube Book-blogging Channels
I am always tardy to the party. Whenever there’s something trending, or popular or just general bandwagon worthy, I’m always jumping on when the wheels are busted up and falling off and all the people have left said wagon.
But this weekend I found a few YouTube Channels that feature book reviews. I love books and I’m always looking for the next good read. Here are a few standouts. You should check them out.
Chapter Chicks


thereadables


girlgonebookish

I’m having a sale! March Madness is my favorite time of the year! I’m heartbroken that my Zags lost last night! But you can go a little mad in my TpT shop this week!

Have a great week! I’m off to rest, relax and try really hard to avoid the temptation of doing anything school related.

You Have Not Because You Ask Not

The Bible says ask and you shall receive. Well, last week when I posted about my Animal Teeth activity I did make it known that I was not an artist and I only created the teeth my shape tools in Power Point would allow me to. You can read abut that here.
A wonderful blogger heard my cry. Her name is Sue Cahalane and her blog is called Science for Kids.

Her blog is amazing BTW. You should check her out and follow. She has so many wonderful ideas for science and I will be adding her to my blog list and my Google reader.
Sue created the rest of the teeth! Just too kind for words. Here’s a sneak peek.

Don’t you just love it! Now if you’d like your expansion pack, click on the picture below. Thanks again Sue! Be sure to hop on by her blog and thank her too!

Patterns for What If You Had Animal Teeth

Wow! I got such a great response from my activity! Click here if you missed it.
Thanks so much for all of your wonderful comments! I’ve assembled the patterns…now I didn’t make teeth for all the animals…just the ones I thought my students would like and the ones I could successfully make with my shape tools in Power Point . I am not an artist. If anyone makes the other patterns, please share.

Click the picture to grab your copy! I hope your students have fun with this activity!

What If You Had Animal Teeth?

Today we tried our hand at a little opinion writing. But first let me back up. This year in our state we are getting our feet wet with the ELA Common Core Standards. We’ve been doing the Math Standards for the last couple of years. My firsties had a good time listening to the story and completing the follow up activity.

I just love this book! Here are a few pictures of the page spreads.

    
After reading the book we discussed what it would be like to have some of the teeth we’d read about. Then they got to choose which animal teeth they’d like to have. They also had to draw a picture of themselves and tell why their selection would be the best teeth to have.

        

    shark teeth                                              naked mole rat teeth

              
            vampire Bat teeth                                    crocodile teeth


                       hippo teeth (sorry it’s so blurry!)

If anyone would like the patterns for the teeth, face and mouth let me know and I’ll add them to this post.

Try This

 

A while back I posted about two new professional books I’m tackling. Here’s one of them.

 

This book has some thought provoking things to share on small group math instruction. One of the problem solving activities was this gem.

This provided lots of insight. I let them use whatever tools or manipulatives they wanted. First we talked through it..then I let them go.

Most got it, but a few were stuck. The ones that were successful could look at the 2 in twenty five and know it was stood for 20, then they broke that down into two boxes of ten and 5 left over.

But the ones that were stuck had no idea…even though we talk about tens and ones all the time during the calendar. This really made me more committed to not just the daily pace of teaching the curriculum but really making sure my students have a good understanding of mathematics and know how to problem solve. Try it and see what insights you’ll get.

Click here to try it with your class. I didn’t think to take pictures of my student’s thinking, but when we do it again I’ll be sure to post them.

 

Tomorrow we’re doing a great activity on opinion writing using this book.

Can’t wait to post pictures! Have a great week!

Seussed-Up

 

This past week we had a school wide celebration of Dr. Seuss. I am personally all seussed-out. Here’s our week in pictures and words.

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                        Source

 

I purchased this last year before it was illegal…boo! Will I get in trouble for just showing this picture????? I’m walking on the wild side people!    That was our week. All I can say is “Somebody get me a doctor!” Do you remember that old Van Halen song???